Another praise report!

I am so happy! I heard back from two of my dropship companies, and as soon as I get my sales tax certificate, I will be approved. YAY!!! These are legit companies, they are the manufacturers, not the middlemen. I think they will sell well, so we shall see. I really think we are headed in the right direction, and it feels good. Praise God!

Follow up and praise report!

Just a follow up and praise report to my Paypal dispute....

I was all set this morning to refund my buyer, but realized that I was short on time, so I decided to do it after dropping off the kids at school. I logged on to find that my buyer had closed the dispute - she had just received the item today! And she left positive feedback right away on Ebay. Thank you, Lord!

Developing a spirit of giving

I am ashamed to admit that our family has not developed a spirit of generosity over the years. :( I've been praying for a way for us as a family to start giving more, and to actually make giving a priority. When the paycheck comes, it's always been bills first, and whatever is left over...well...who knows were it goes... But that has to change! I can feel it in the family - we have become selfish in our individual selves as well as selfish as a family. We argue more - we don't think of others. Ugh.

So today our church message was "Rethinking Christmas". The church is partnering with local ministries in order to help them with their needs. I just downloaded the PDF file from the church website which has ways to help, and I'm praying for us to incorporate this into our family.

Praying for a giving spirit!

Prayers for a family from church...

A member of my church was arrested for criminal solicitation of a minor. :( The man's wife was the one who helped me on my first day of attending this church (it's a big mega-church) with getting the kids in the right Sunday School class, etc. I feel so sorry for all involved - I cannot imagine how his wife is feeling right now. Praying for all the families involved.

Income potential...

I've stumbled across a couple of reputable dropship companies that look like they might do well over the holidays. I am going to apply for my sales tax resale certificate with the state this coming Friday (when we next get paid), and then I'm going to apply with those companies to be an authorized dealer. Praying that this works out! We really need to increase income before we can tackle our Dave Ramsey Baby Steps and also get this house in order.

Election Prayers

I'm praying very much for our country for our upcoming presidential election. I won't bore you with who I am going to vote for (although many readers who know me know who I am voting for LOL), but suffice to say that I think this is the most important election in my voting lifetime. There are a lot of issues on the table, a great many issues that I hold near and dear to my heart. My prayer is that Americans will get out to vote, to have their voices heard.

Crisis averted.....for now.....

Today, Mom put money into our checking account. (We bank with a national bank, and she has a branch near her.) So our financial crisis fire has been put out for now, but it's going to keep smouldering until we get some more income coming in.

I really don't know how I feel about it. Mom said not to worry about it, that she has put aside a small sum of money for her trip up here in December, so she was just going to take less, so it was ok with her. She said she doesn't mind helping, because some day she may need help, too.

But it still bothers me - did God allow for this to happen, or did I somehow not have enough faith that he was going to come through with some other means? I'm reminded of this old story:

A man is stranded on his roof during a mighty storm. The area is flooded. He cannot move. He prays to God to rescue him. An hour passes and a man in a small boat rows past. “Hop it”, says the oars man. No says the man on the roof, “God will rescue me”.

Sometime later a bigger boat appears and then a helicopter. Both are greeted with the same response “I’ll wait for God to rescue me.”

The man dies of hypothermia. He reaches the gates of heaven and greets God with anger. “I prayed for help and you ignored my prayer!”

“I did answer your prayer,” says God, “I sent you two boats and a helicopter!”

So, perhaps Mom was supposed to be the one helping this time.....

Be patient...be patient.....

Just after posting my last entry, I was hit with a Paypal dispute that put my Paypal account into the negative. Panic reared it's ugly head again. Ugh. No panicking, no panicking.....God is in control. Deep breath....

A Lamp Unto My Feet

As I was in the car going to pick up Molly from preschool, I was struck by a wave of panic. No money for Ebay fees, no money for the water bill - would Ebay try to debit my acccount, and then Bank of America would return it and slap me with a $25 returned item fee? What if we can't pay the water bill by the 27th - when would they turn the water off? On and on and on....what if,what if, what if???? It was at that point that something I read many years ago came to mind. I tried to Google it to get the exact quote, but wasn't able to, so let me paraprhase. It was spoken by Dr. James Dobson, on a Focus on the Family recording about discerning God's will in our lives.

"God said he would be the lamp unto our feet - he did not say that he would be the light shining 100 feet down the track."

That gave me some perspective. So often I get caught up in what's in the future, and get so impatient. And then panic sets in. But our needs have been met for today, through God's grace. There's no reason to panic. God is in control!

Prayers for a gift for Mom

This might come across as a silly prayer request, so bear with me.

I must admit, I have not been a "very good" daughter when it comes to Christmas for Mom. She visits us yearly at Christmas time from Florida, and since everyone is in some sort of financial bind, we've always said to just concentrate on the kids for Christmas presents. Well, inevitably, poor Mom will get quite a bit for me and Harry, and we haven't gotten a lot for her. I want this to change this year.

Mom is a big opera fan. I found out that there are going to be some live simulcasts of some opera performances from The Metropolitan Opera House being broadcast in movie theaters. I want to get tickets for this for Mom, and also a gift card for a nice dinner beforehand. Since Mom does not drive much, I would need to look into getting some kind of car service to take her to the performance and to dinner. I really think she would enjoy this. I already kind of hinted at this to her, because I need to get an idea of what opera she would like to see.

As an aside, I have fond memories of my Mom listening to "Live from the Met" on the radio on Saturday afternoons when I was a kid. At the time, it kind of drove my Dad and I kind of batty, because neither of us liked opera, but looking back, I do miss those times. A few months ago, I was with the kids in the van, scanning through channels on the radio, and we came across "Live from The Met". The kids seemed to like it! Opera? My kids? I guess I'll have to try and find it again with the kids and see if it was a fluke. LOL

I messed up....:(

I really didn't want to say anything to Mom at all, but Mom does not take no for an answer, so I did mention our financial difficulty, and of course, immediately she said she would look to see if she could help. Sigh. I hate myself sometimes, I really do. I told her "Look, I'm sorry I brought this up....please, please don't put yourself into a hole. As much as I would love the help, please look after yourself, ok?" I hope she will.

Lead us not into temptation....

It is extremely tempting to call my poor mother, YET AGAIN, to ask for help. The past couple of times I've asked, I've always said I would pay her back on the next paycheck, and yet the next paycheck would come up short. :( I owe my mother so much, and yet she never complains, God love her. She is not really able to help anyway -she's on a fixed income, she has little to no savings. I should be helping her, not the other way around! Praying that I can keep my mouth shut tonight during our nightly phone call. One word about this financial crisis and she will try to see if she can help, and put some money in our checking account. No, no, no, I cannot do it. I cannot keep leaning on her like this, it is just NOT RIGHT.

On another note, still praying that some sort of funds will arrive before Ebay hits our checking account for fees. It is such a vicious cycle - I usually pay my Ebay fees as I go along, but this time we had to use any and all funds from Ebay for groceries in between paychecks, so I fell behind in keeping up with Ebay fees. Ugh, ugh, ugh. If I could postpone it, I would, but I have my Ebay account linked with our check card, and I can't change it to manual billing (or whatever it's called). It's been tempting, too, to update the Ebay billing with a check card from another account that we seldom use, in the hopes that it will be denied and it will buy me some time, but that seems dishonest, too. :(

Give us this day our daily bread.....

Finances are at the top of the prayer list again. Seems as if I can't budget correctly, so now we are short on cash for the remaining groceries for the next week and a half, Ebay fees, the girls school photos (money due October 23), gasoline for my van, the water bill (due October 27 before being disconnected), and DH won't get paid again until October 31. Prayers that we can make it through until then...

The Beginning

So, not being a blogging person, why do I want to start a blog? I don't know your guess is as good as mine. I like to write - I need to pray more, so maybe this will be a good combination? Writing and praying....hmmm....

I guess my purpose in writing this is to show people how God is working in my life as well as my family's life. Prayer is a powerful thing, and I haven't really been doing much of it these days. So perhaps this will bring accountability on my part.

So, without further adieu, welcome to my Online Prayer Notebook.